One of the most significant changes in the world in the past 30 years is the opening of China to the outside world and its engagement with that world. In the initial years of the opening, external forces influenced China’s economy, regional balances, bureaucracy, as well as the political authority of local leaders in the coastal areas. More recently, the world is feeling the effects of a rising China which seeks resources and talent from all around the globe and uses its financial wealth to strengthen its position in the world. This course tracks the opening of China up from 1978 until it joins the WTO, focusing on how the world affected China’s internal development. We then look at various aspects of China’s “going out strategy” — its search for energy, talent, as well as its relations with the United States and the states within the Asia-Pacific region. The instructor has been deeply engaged in research on all these topics, having lived in China during various stages of China’s opening to the outside world.
Course Overview video: https://youtu.be/7FpNL67EbE4

Enseigné par

David Zweig

Chair Professor of the Division of Social Science and Director of Center on China’s Transnational Relations

Transcription

[MUSIC] Now the third and final organization that we're going to look at, a regional association, is China in central Asia has set up the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Now China tends to avoid resolving conflicts in multilateral organizations preferring bilateral negotiations which affords China more leverage because it's so much bigger. But to resolve the Muslim crisis in Xinjiang, China went out of its way. Jiang Zemin did this himself, went out of its way to establish its first multilateral regional forum, the SCO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in 2001, with four central Asian countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and Russia. And in July 2015, India and Pakistan also became full members, and there are several observer nations such as Iran and Mongolia. Now, the main goal of this organization is really anti terrorism, trade, politics, and also energy. Now if we look at the territory, we look at the map, this is a very interesting map, so come and let's look at it together. So, here's the area of crisis for China down here. This is Sing Jung and the crisis is down here. And we know that Islamic fundamentalism, here' s Afghanistan, Iran. We know that it's been coming across these areas and potentially coming in to China. So what China decided to do was to get these countries of Kazakhstan, these countries right here along with Russia, to try and set up some kind of wall, some kind of barrier against the inflow of radical Islam into this area of Sinjeong. The organization is run under what they call the Spirit of Shanghai which emphasizes territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders, non-interference in internal affairs, the non-use of force or no threats to use force, and no seeking of unilateral military superiority in areas next to these countries. But the SCO members, one thing is they have to oppose intervention in other countries internal affairs on the pretext of humanitarianism. So that's very much targeted at the U.S., not to be able to do it for the reasons of humanitarianism or to protect human rights. Now the SCO is an important platform for China's new one belt, one road strategy. But in truth, except for Russia and Kazakhstan, there's really not that much trade, but it has been picking up. Now if we look again at the trade, so here we can see, I mentioned before, trade with Russia, basically doubled from 2010. Kazakhstan, a lot of the trade is with oil. A lot of the commercial deals are for oil and gas, but Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, not that much trade but it has been steadily increasing in all these countries. Now let me conclude this entire module by saying that I hope that at this point, I have convinced you that Chinese foreign policy has been changing And the China has become more assertive. This change has roots, in the nature or structure of the international system with China's strategic rise and the potential for some type of power transition. China feels strong, its economy is strong and its power, its trade power is growing, and so that feels that it can make some big changes. But as we will see, China still is relatively weak in terms of its research culture, in terms of its soft power. Now the new leadership is now three years under Xi Jinping and 2016 has clearly replaced Deng Xiaoping's cautious foreign policy as China tries to use its capabilities to pursue its national interests including its core interests more directly. And it is indeed the job of China and the world to manage China's rise in a manner that will not threaten regional or world peace.